State officials are recommending anyone 6 months or older receive a COVID-19 vaccine, and on Wednesday issued a standing order authorizing pharmacies to administer the shots to most Vermonters.
Vermont’s announcement follows the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decision to significantly narrow eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines, and is the latest example of a state breaking with the federal government as the Trump administration increasingly retreats from the medical establishment on the subject of immunization.
Many blue states are taking a regional approach to public health. Four Western states have formed a coalition to issue unified health guidance as a counterweight to President Donald Trump, as have seven Northeastern states, who formally announced the launch of the Northeast Public Health Collaborative on Thursday.
But Vermont is taking a conspicuously different approach — at least in style, if not substance.
We are going to do what we think is best for the health and welfare of Vermonters.Julie Arel, Vermont interim commissioner of health
Vermont and New Hampshire, which also has a Republican governor, were the only New England states that did not join the Northeast Public Health Collaborative. And a press release about Vermont’s standing order came out of Gov. Phil Scott’s office with little fanfare, and zero mention of Trump.
“Getting vaccinated is the best way for us to protect ourselves and others, especially as we head into the fall season,” Scott said in a short statement. “This order is a necessary step to make sure those who want a vaccine can get one.”
Still, the public health guidance and regulations that Vermont is putting into place generally mirror what Democratically-controlled states in the region are doing — and what most major medical associations recommend.
“We are going to do what we think is best for the health and welfare of Vermonters, and that is why we issued the recommendations that we did and why we issued the standing order,” Julie Arel, the interim commissioner of the Vermont health department, said Thursday. “That's just the bottom line.”
Vermont’s guidance says anyone 6 months or older that wants a COVID-19 vaccine should get one. It also names several particularly high-risk groups, including those 65 and older, people who are pregnant or breastfeeding, immunocompromised groups, and children 6-23 months old.
The standing order, also issued this week by state health officials, allows pharmacies in Vermont to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to anyone 5 and up. (Preexisting state regulations do not allow pharmacies to give COVID-19 shots to those younger than 5, according to Arel, and could not be overruled with a standing order.)
Jessa Barnard, the executive director of the Vermont Medical Society, said the standing order should significantly improve access to COVID-19 shots in the state.
By restricting eligibility for the newest COVID-19 shots to those 65 or older and people with underlying conditions, she said the FDA had created “a lot of overall confusion,” about whether pharmacies could administer the vaccine more widely. Some pharmacies in Vermont had been telling patients they needed a prescription, Barnard said, while other pharmacies simply refused to provide the shots to anyone outside the federal government’s new guidelines.
“This will clarify what pharmacies and pharmacy staff can do,” she said.
Vermont’s announcement also comes as a key federal panel — stacked by U.S. Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. with vaccine skeptics — is meeting in Atlanta to review the country’s immunization schedule. The advisory body’s recommendations have particularly important implications for health insurance, although this influence has quickly waned.
Several states, including Vermont, have announced health insurance plans regulated at the state level will cover vaccines recommended by local health authorities.
And private insurers nationally are also saying that they will continue covering vaccinations, no matter how federal policy changes. On Tuesday, the national trade association representing the health insurance industry, AHIP, announced plans would continue to cover all vaccinations that had been recommended as of Sept. 1, also at no cost to patients through the end of next year.
